Inmate Freed In Orange Had Dade Prison Date

Orange County jail officials inadvertently released an inmate wanted in Dade County even though the FBI had notified them the man was wanted elsewhere.

Fred Neil Krause, also known as Robert Lee Stone, has not been seen since he walked out of jail April 12, freed without bail by an Orange County circuit judge who had not been told the man was wanted.

Krause was wanted in Dade after he failed to show up to serve a prison term there.

''We made an error,'' said 33rd Street Jail Cmdr. Mike Penn. ''We book 35,000 inmates a year. We don't make too many mistakes. But on this one we did. It should have been caught.''

Krause was freed after a clerk failed to notice a form attached to his jail card showing the FBI wanted him, Penn said. The clerk has been disciplined, he said.

Orange County court files show Krause, 32, who listed an address of 614 W. Concord St., Orlando, was arrested March 8 on charges of possession of diazepam, a powerful tranquilizer, in the 1400 block of West Colonial Drive, after an Orlando police officer had stopped him for a traffic violation.

Krause's bail was set at $1,000, court records show, but he was unable to post it and remained in jail.

Several days later, a routine fingerprint check by jail officials with the FBI's Washington office showed Krause to be Robert Lee Stone, 32, wanted on a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid confinement.

According to Dade County court records, Stone was arrested in 1984 on 14 counts of sale and delivery of cocaine.

Lou Terminello, agent for the Florida Department of Alcoholic Beverages, said Stone was a bouncer at a Homestead bar and was charged with selling cocaine to customers.

On Aug. 22, 1984, Stone pleaded guilty to five counts of sale and delivery of cocaine and was sentenced to five years in jail. Court records show he was given until Oct. 5, 1984, to report for his sentence but do not say why. Terminello declined comment.

But Stone never showed up to serve his term, and the unlawful flight warrant was issued. The Metro Dade County Police Department also issued a warrant, department records show.

Orange County jail records show the FBI's Orlando office notified the central booking office that Krause was Stone on March 28, Penn said.

According to court records, Krause pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance on April 11. On a motion from Krause's attorney, assistant public defender Ofilia Galindo, Circuit Judge Lawrence Kirkwood freed Krause on his own recognizance until his sentencing June 12.

Galindo said she didn't think she knew Krause's true identity. Kirkwood and the prosecutor, assistant state attorney Tim Berry, both said they didn't know.

''I had no idea,'' Berry said. He said a reporter's phone call was the first he knew of Krause's background. Kirkwood said he found out from Berry a few minutes later.

''There is no normal procedure for letting us know something like that, although many times they do,'' Berry said. ''On the surface, it looked like it was no big deal to let him out. It looked like a first offense, and he had community ties.''

Penn said that a form about half the size of a piece of notebook paper was attached to Krause's jail card alerting officials there that he shouldn't be released because the FBI wanted him.

But a clerk reviewing the cards of prisoners to be released failed to notice the form, he said. So Krause was released April 12. The clerk was suspended for a day without pay and counseled, Penn said.

''I could not say it's something that's easily missed,'' Penn said. ''But in her defense, she's young, she was just promoted to that job, and it's very, very complex and fast-paced. They review hundreds of forms and take hundreds of phone calls every day. Every once in a while, we're going to make an error. ''We went back and reviewed the whole procedure, and it shouldn't happen again.''

Court records show a state probation officer notified Kirkwood that Krause didn't show up for a May 2 pre-sentence investigation interview, and Kirkwood ordered a warrant for Krause's arrest issued.